The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for the removal of real or false twist from a moving fabric in rope form.
Fabric that is subjected to finishing and/or dyeing processes in rope form such as in a jet dyer or the like is subject to receiving real or false twist during processing. Thereafter, upon removal of the fabric from the process equipment, it is necessary to open the fabric to full width such that it can be properly fed to a tenter frame or the like for drying and/or heat setting of the fabric. Either false or real twist in the fabric while in rope form will create problems during handling of same preparatory to feeding in open width to other process equipment. Particularly, with the fabric in rope form and loosely received in a container for same, a single end of the fabric is removed from the container for opening to full width. During such opening operation, spreading forces will cause any real or false twist therein to move along the fabric rope in a direction opposite the direction of opening. If adequate twist is present in the fabric, the fabric will ultimately become tangled in the container to a point where twist passes through the detwist unit and causes malfunctions of the spreader apparatus.
The present invention is designed to remove such real or false twist from a fabric in rope form prior to spreading, irrespective of the degree of twist in the fabric while enabling the process to continue unimpeded.
While detwist apparatus is known which includes rollers that engage the cloth and which are positively driven in circular fashion in a plane around the fabric path, there is no known prior art that is believed to anticipate or suggest the method or apparatus of the present invention.